Death of a Rookie
by Micronowski
Summary: A soldier willing to sacrifice everything


The last thing he heard as he boarded the drop ship to be lowered onto the planet was "This is the day you're going to die".

Looking down across the battlefield as his ship descended, the Rookie could see hundreds of soldiers rushing to their deaths, being cut across like scissors through paper. The planet was brown and barren, surrounded by high mountains that blocked out any light that may have been offered by neighboring stars or planets. The battlefield they were entering was a narrow valley with little cover, except for the bodies that had been piled up by other soldiers trying to survive.

The soldiers were made aware of their objective before that had ever left the station, which was to detonate a large nuclear bomb that was located at the heart of the Geth military base. This bomb was large enough to blow up half the planet and was the only way to stop the Geth forces from amassing an army great enough to assault Earth. The Geth had recently commandeered the planet at the expense of a several harvesting colonies that were occupying the planet. Ever since that day, thousands of Geth ships have been accumulating around the planet.

The acting commander on the shuttle was giving one final speech to the solders before the ship landed, but the gun shots and screaming that grew louder as they descended is all that the Rookie could hear. He knew there was more to the story than what he was told but being only on his second week as a soldier, the chances of finding that out were none. Instead he clutched his gun tighter and prepared to land.

As the ship touched down, the Rookie jumped out and hit the ground running. The unnamed Rookie followed by 20 other soldiers sprinted towards the base. He looked up and could see four other drop ships being shot down by the Geth anti air guns. He saw some of the soldiers deciding to jump out of the ships instead of waiting to be shot down. Eyeing ahead he could see the cold gaze of the Geth as they seemed unmoved by the advancement of the soldiers. Cold and calculated as they shot the soldiers down one by one with perfect precision. They could have fought back but this tactic had been tried, the Geth AI adapt to an enemy's tactics so efficiently that they're left fighting an enemy that knows them better than they know themselves. They may not have expected this all out charge they were getting now but were quickly making adjustments to accommodate.

The explosions were coming from everywhere. The Geth were raining down grenades from every direction to stop the advancement. Those that made it through we're greeted with a line of Geth Primes more than capable of handling anything exiting the smoke.  
Continuing to race across the battlefield, gripping his gun as hard as he could, a large explosion was set off right in front of him leaving a large hole in the ground. The Rookie fell right into the crater dropping his assault rifle in the process. As the ringing of the explosion slowly disappeared and his sense came back, he looked around to see 3 other soldiers had fallen in with him. Only one had survived but he was in no condition to continue fighting. There was nothing he could do to help; he had to keep heading towards the bomb.

Climbing out of the crater he was greeted by a Geth soldier standing at the top, getting ready to shoot. Without wasting a moment the Rookie grabbed a grenade off of his belt and threw it directly at the Geth. The grenade was deflected by the Geth using its rifle, launching it onto a nearby mountain. The explosion from the grenade caused boulders to rain down from the mountain, narrowly missing the Rookie but the Geth was not so fortunate, it was buried under the rocks.

He picked up the dropped gun from the Geth and looked at his path. More soldiers than he had ever seen we're lying on the field defeated. They were quickly running out of reinforcements and the Geth had what seemed like an unlimited supply. Their numbers we're endless and they had not even made a dent.

Not giving himself the chance to have doubts, the Rookie broke into another sprint towards the base. He was finding it much harder to run after his fall, a few ribs may have been broken. Some of the Geth on the front line took notice of his advancement; he realized he was closer than most of the other soldiers, the Geth noticed as well. Now that he was an increased priority, four Geth in perfect unison broke away from the pact and made their way in his direction. Seeing this, he dove behind a nearby boulder just as they started firing in his direction. One had launched some explosive device nearby which blew half of the boulder away but still leaving enough for him to not be in their direct line of fire.

Leaning out of cover briefly he fired the rifle in their direction. The shield of the Geth flashed red momentarily then turned blue followed by all Geth in site having their shields flash blue. One thing he learned in training was when this happened the Geth had adapted their technology. His gun was useless, their shields were now immune. As the Geth advanced their way towards his cover, he could hear a loud explosion above him followed by an alliance ship descending in his direction. Taking this opportunity he ran towards the crashing ship getting behind the debris as soon as it made impact. But it didn't stop once it hit the ground; it kept going, sliding into front line and eventually crashing into their main base.

At this point there were only a handful of soldiers left, looking up in the sky the Rookie could see the main armada was retreating. This was his only chance, his support was gone. Racing behind the wreckage of the ship that saved his life, he climbed inside looking for something he could use. Grabbed several grenades off of his deceased comrades he had an idea. The sounds of explosions were already dying down and the Geth knew he was hiding in the wreckage.

Climbing into the cockpit he threw the grenades out in an attempt to clear out any Geth that might have been waiting for him directly outside. Not waiting to find out if his plan worked, he climbed through the broken glass and jumped out of the ship. He was inside their base.

Not having enough time to fully take in what he was looking at, he sprinted through as fast as he could, noticing all of the Geth equipment set up neatly along the walls making up some kind of giant server. Everything was compacted together; the Geth had not wasted any space when they designed their base. There had to be thousands of Geth lined up along the walls, maybe because they didn't expect to use them. They must not have anticipated anyone making it this far because there was barely enough room to move through let alone defend. This was more of a Geth storage than it was a base.

Finally seeing the end, the bomb was in site. The machines had finally realized the urgency of the situation and started activating all of the idle Geth lined up along the walls. Suddenly thousands of red eyes lit up and starting dismounting their docks but it was too late. He was too close and could not be stopped. Reaching the bomb the Rookie armed the bomb as the machines poured into the room by the hundreds. The bomb set off a loud siren knocking the Rookie off his feet.

The Geth knew what this meant as they all gathered to form a circle around the bomb…around _him_. The cold red gaze of a thousand Geth suddenly turned blue as they all lowered their weapons. The Rookie looked around at the Geth and knew what this meant.

"We won" he said as a loud flash filled the room.


End file.
